Two-Way Job

In 1932 a moribund Kansas City real-estate firm called McCoy Land Co. sued as a taxpayer to prevent sale of bonds for a new Jackson County courthouse site on Oak Street. President of McCoy Land Co. was Lawyer William C. Scarritt of the prominent firm of Scarritt, Jones & North. Although a lower court ruled the McCoy suit had no merit, Lawyer Scarritt threatened an appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court. Fearing further delay would cause the selection of another courthouse site, property owners of the proposed site on Oak Street hired Lawyer Henry Spotswood Conrad, agreed to pay him a $1,000 fee and $250 expenses to get Lawyer Scarritt to withdraw his suit. After numerous conferences Lawyer Conrad told his clients the real-estate firm would not retreat unless paid $35,350. They agreed and Lawyer Conrad drew up a contract making the deal with McCoy Land Co. The property was sold without interference.

Last week the Missouri Supreme Court declared Lawyer Conrad, 62, guilty of professional misconduct, suspended him from the practice of law for four months because he had accepted a fee not only from his property-owning clients but also from McCoy Land Co. He asked for and got, the Supreme Court found, $5,000 from McCoy Land Co. not mentioned in the contract. Widely known for his oratorical abilities, Lawyer Conrad long has had a large Kansas City real-estate practice. The Missouri Bar Committee's discovery of McCoy's $5,000 fee to Lawyer Conrad resulted from testimony in an Oak Streeter's successful suit against McCoy to re-cover a share of the $35,350 settlement.

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